Poser: My Life in Twenty-Three Yoga Poses

Ten years ago Claire Dederer put her back out while breastfeeding her baby daughter. Told to try yoga (by everyone from the woman behind the counter at the co-op to the homeless guy on the corner), she signed up for her first class and fell madly in love. Dederer's sharp, irreverent, and wildly popular memoir is unlike any other book about yoga because it is actually a book about life, for anyone who has ever tried to stand on their head while keeping both feet on the ground.

"This book is going to be big. Claire Dederer manages to pack everything into this personal memoir: childbirth, money, schools, social class, career anxiety, parenting, sex, friendship, marriage, and yes, yoga. And don't forget Dansko clogs—'always, always, [the] clogs.' Thousands of American mothers share Dederer's experience as they glance up from their darling, maddening new babies to find themselves in a new sphere: hip, progressive, trying-really-hard-to-do-it-right mom-world. Poser is written for them.... From the bendier-than-thou instructors to the more-locavore-than-thou preschool parents, Dederer captures everyone in her world with humanity and gentle wit. So many readers will relate to her story; not just the long minutes spent in downward dog or the hours lost wandering the aisles of Whole Foods, but the years of pondering the mysteries of family relationships, past and present. And the fleeting moments spent staying, as the yogis say, focused on the breath."—Boston Globe